Kiev to suspend cargo traffic to east Ukraine

The Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday decided to temporarily suspend railway and automobile cargo traffic to non-government controlled areas in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said.

"The decision will be in effect until the invaders return the seized Ukrainian enterprises to the jurisdiction of Ukraine," Poroshenko told a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.

The ban will touch only the movement of commercial goods, but will not affect the transportation of humanitarian aid to the conflict-torn region, Poroshenko added.

Commenting on the move, Denis Pushilin, the official envoy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic to the Trilateral Contact Group on the Ukraine crisis, said the ban violates the Minsk peace agreement.

The suspension of the cargo traffic followed the escalation of tensions in eastern Ukraine, which erupted in the wake of the railway blockade in the region.

After a group of Ukrainian activists blocked the movements of trains transporting coal and other raw products from non-government controlled areas, pro-independence insurgents took over the Kiev-controlled businesses operating in the rebel-held territory.

The Minsk agreement, signed in February 2015, is designed to put an end to the almost three-year-old conflict in east Ukraine in which about 10,000 people have died.

Source: Xinhua